With Spring just around the corner, it’s time to boost your health and well-being with an edible garden. Gardening is relaxing and rewarding for people of all ages and has been clinically shown to reduce stress and improve mood.

Additionally, growing your own fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices is a great way to stave away produce contaminants, hormones and pesticides you’re exposed to when shopping for non-organic produce. Locally-grown foods are also better for the environment because they require much fewer resources to reach consumers.

For beginning gardeners, starting a garden can seem like a big feat. With these tips and “what to plant” list, get your hands dirty this spring and start gardening!

For cold climates, start indoors with medium-sized pots placed by a window with lots of sunshine.

Tips for What to Plant:

1. Opt for semi-established starter plants instead of using seeds. Seeds often require pre-soaking and seedlings often die before they can make it to a larger pot. Established plants are much easier to grow.
2. Start with durable plants. Pay attention to the care information that comes with your plants. Plants that grow naturally in your region will most likely succeed in your home.
3. Don’t get discouraged! Plants are complex and it’s okay if your plants don’t make it. Learn from your mistakes! The best gardening tools are practice and experience.

Did you know that 40% of apples end up as food waste? Or that one in ten bananas bought by consumers ends up in the garbage? Yikes, right?! That’s scary!

It’s really no secret that we humans can be wasteful, but I was even a bit surprised to hear those staggering statistics, Especially because being a vegetarian, I LOVE fruit and veggies! How sad that so much of it is being wasted!

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In the United States alone, we waste a staggering 40% of the food produced. That is enough to fill the Rose Bowl every single day! Instead, this waste sits in landfills producing methane, which is 20 times more harmful than CO2. Yeah, not only are we wasting valuable resources but it’s hurting our earth and our atmosphere too! If we can just do our part, and join in Recycling (or limiting) 15 million pounds of food waste, that ends up being an equivalent to keeping 500,000 cars off the road for an entire day. That’s pretty incredible!

Here are some things you can do to lessen your carbon footprint on the earth by wasting less food: